"You never know who's swimming naked until the tide goes out..." This is one of my favorite Warren Buffett quotes. What on earth does that have to do with investing, you might ask? Well, you never really know how exposed your investment positions are until they are...
Where Are We Today? A Sense of History As someone who has been in the markets for at least 35 years now, I've realized just how important it is to have a sense of history. Of course, that knowledge is not a prerequisite for participation in the markets or even taking...
Here's a call I always hated to get in the past from clients: "Hey Steve, I've got this annuity and would like to do something with it. Can you help me?" Unfortunately, my answer was usually, "Probably not." You see, annuities and other insurance based products have...
The Nixon penny. A product of the early 1970’s. I'm old enough to remember it. The incredible shrinking pocket book. Inflation was running wild. The cost of everything was going up. Gas, bread, housing, you name it. Are we returning to the 1970’s? It almost seems like...
John Hughes was mystified. He had been in the insurance industry for 30 years, but he had never seen anything quite like this. His prospective client owned nearly 30 separate life insurance products! All with different amounts and various features. The man was...
"Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one." --Charles Mackay Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. That's a mouthful. And, actually, it's a...
People talk about price ALL the time. "This stock is selling for this..." or "I bought this stock at this and sold it at that." Stock price is just a nominal number, and by itself it tells us nothing. As an investor, you want to know: What are you getting in return...
"The Traditional 60-40 Investment Portfolio is Dead" This was a headline from a Bank of America report. They probably should have said, "Your investments are seriously exposed to major losses or drawdowns." Now, that would have gotten people's attention! They're...
Studies say that 15% of the time when we are absolutely, positively certain we’re right about something, we're actually wrong. That's overconfidence, and it can be a financially dangerous behavior for investors. The field of behavioral finance studies our irrational...
Are you in the market for a financial advisor? You’ve come to the right place! It can be hard to find a committed advisor to help you plan wisely. When it comes to wealth management, investments, and retirement planning, it seems like there’s always another financial...